SERIOUSLY FLAWED DISTRICTING PLAN ADOPTED BY FORT LAUDERDALE BOARD

Political power is addictive: those who have it rarely want to give it up.

As proof, consider the arrogant message four Fort Lauderdale city commissioners just sent to southwest area residents by adopting a badly flawed city commission district election plan.

In effect, they said, "Forget about any hopes of getting fair representation in city government or of sharing power equally with the eastern residents who have dominated city politics so long."

Ignoring objections from people in all parts of the city, Mayor Robert Cox, Vice Mayor John Rodstrom Jr. and Commissioners Doug Danziger and Richard Mills unwisely approved commission district election Plan C. Only Commissioner Jim Naugle, the lone commissioner living in the west, voted for the sensible Plan B.

Plan C is flawed for several reasons:

-- It continues the parochial east-west split that has separated the haves from the have-nots in the city's political power spectrum and denied fair representation to the west. The district lines permit people living in the east to elect three commissioners and perhaps even the mayor, while people in the west will control election of only one commissioner.

-- It will have a divisive impact on the southwest part of the city, shattering the expanding cooperation and sense of community identity among the area's various civic associations and diluting voting clout of an area that has almost never been able to elect a commissioner.

-- It represents blatant gerrymandering or artificial distortion of boundary lines. All but one of the southwestern precincts located west of I-95 will be included in a district dominated by northwest area residents; the rest of the southwestern area will be included in a district dominated by southeastern residents.

-- By putting Hispanic residents in the southwest together in one district with and black residents in the northwest, the plan could face a challenge for violating a federal court doctrine that forbids such "packing" of two minority groups.

In contrast, districting Plan B, which is fairer, more logical and more reasonable, would have given each quadrant of the city -- northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest -- its own commissioner.

Plan C, introduced by Rodstrom, is so noxious that it practically invites a lengthy, expensive legal challenge that could possibly disrupt the March 1988 city election.

If the courts don't overturn the plan, it appears voters will be stuck with it for both the 1988 and 1991 city elections, because the next census results requiring reapportionment won't be presented until after the 1991 municipal elections.

The districting plan risks polarizing the city, instead of offering unity. Its adoption was a serious mistake, replacing one unfair election system with another.